le stools and a window-box. Often Gerda would step out of her attic
window into the balcony, carrying with her a three-legged wooden stool.
Then she would climb over the low wall that separated her from Kay.

And there in Kay's balcony the two children would sit and play together,
or tell fairy tales, or tend the flowers that bloomed so gaily in the
window-box.

At other times it was Kay who would bound over the low wall into Gerda's
balcony, and there, too, the little boy and girl were as happy as though
they had been in Fairyland.

In each little window-box grew a rose-bush, and the bloom and the scent
of the red roses they bore gave Kay and Gerda more delight than you can
imagine; and all her life long a red rose remained little Gerda's
favorite flower.

But it was not always summer-time, and when cold, frosty winter came,
and the Snow Queen sailed down on the large white snowflakes from a gray
sky, then no flowers bloomed in the window-boxes. And the balcony was so
slippery that the children dared not venture to step out of their attic
windows, but had to run down one long flight of stairs and up another to
be able to play together.

Sometimes, though, Kay stayed in his own little room and Gerda stayed
in hers, gazing and gazing at the lovely pictures of castles, and
mountains, and sea, and flowers that the Snow Queen had drawn on the
window-panes as she passed.

But now that the little panes of glass were covered with pictures, how
could Kay and Gerda peep at each other from the attic windows?

Ah, they had a plan, and a very good plan, too. Kay would heat a penny
on the stove, and then press it against the window-pane, and so make
little round peep-holes. Then he would put his eye to one of these
little rounds and--what did he see? A bright black eye peeping from
Gerda's attic, for she, too, had heated a penny and made peep-holes in
her window.

It was in winter, too, when the children could not play together on the
balcony, that Gerda's grandmother told them stories of the Snow Queen.

One night, as Kay was undressing to go to bed, he climbed on a chair and
peeped out of one of his little round holes, and there, on the edge of
the window-box, were a few big snowflakes. And as the little boy watched
them, the biggest grew bigger and bigger, until it grew into a white
lady of glittering, dazzling ice. Her eyes shone like two bright stars.

"It must be the Snow Queen," thought Kay, and at that moment the